Life Is Better With The ‘Right Tools’ … Hello weekend readers. I had a lot of musings for this weekend, but the one that hit me most was one of my own ‘bloopers’—and I have a lot of those, but this one was a reminder that when I decide to do something ‘Johnny-on-the-spot’ I still need the right ‘tools’ to do it.

The other day I needed to print out some flyers for our campground booth. I did the printing down at our RV (I have a nice office in the rig) because I needed color. Our small LaserJet in the booth has black only.  I was ready to cut some edges and then I realized my cutting board was up in the booth. I decided I could do it easily with some scissors, rather than get in the truck and drive up to the booth (I could have walked as well but it is on a fairly steep incline). And this, my readers, is what happens when you don’t have the right tools!

I knew I had three scissors; the closest was in my office so why not use that one. It was quite dull but I didn’t feel like going out to our shed, so, after several tries my flyers were not straight and had ragged edges. OK, out to the shed where we had two more. I took one scissor thinking “this one is OK” and of course, it wasn’t. I quit for a few minutes and made another cup of java, determined to get this done with the third scissor—that flopped as well. Al came in and said “would you like me to go up to the booth and get your cutting board?” Sheepishly, I nodded and shortly my wasted time was smooth cutting—less than 5 minutes!

Don’t laugh, but this episode (of many others) reminded me of Jesus’ walking on the water in John 6:16-21 [MSG]. This time it isn’t about fear, but having the ‘right tools’.

In the evening his disciples went down to the sea, got in the boat, and headed back across the water to Capernaum. It had grown quite dark and Jesus had not yet returned. A huge wind blew up, churning the sea. They were maybe three or four miles out when they saw Jesus walking on the sea, quite near the boat. They were scared senseless, but he reassured them, “It’s me. It’s all right. Don’t be afraid.” So they took him on board. In no time they reached land—the exact spot they were headed to.

When I read this scripture, my focus usually is on the buffing winds and the dangerous waves. I’ve been on the water many times when storms come up—it’s not fun and you have to have the right tools for your boat and your own safety. I admit, on our little dinghy sailboat we often forgot to take our life-jackets, and worse, we’d forget to put in the keel-duh!

I suspect the disciples felt the same way out on the sea. But the last sentence says “they took him in the boat” and in no time they were on land! In other words, by inviting Jesus in the boat, they had the right tools!

So, why does it take us so long to “invite Jesus into our tough situations?” Like my scissor’s debacle (and many other debacles), we seem to think we can do it first until we can’t. Then we become frustrated and remain even more stubborn to continue what we are doing rather than taking a few steps to get the “right tools” which would make it so much easier to finish the task!

Digging deeper into this “tools” story, we each need to ask ourselves if we have an area in our lives that we are avoiding so much that we don’t want to “invite Jesus” into the situation. That is when our pride and stubbornness up-ends everything and easily ruins the day. Then we say to ourselves, “why did I do that?” Of course, we don’t like the answer, either!

So, in closing let’s remember that it was after inviting Jesus into their boat that they had everything they needed for the job because the tool was Jesus! No wonder they immediately reached the shore, right? Jesus has all the equipment we need for our lives—even a set of scissors! So don’t wait, don’t get frustrated and mad, grab the tools Jesus has for you and use them. Then, you can finish the task—maybe even with a smile?! AMEN.